StoryBoard

This is the storyboard of our music video:

Script

First shot is ten seconds. The location is the drama room. The boy is standing in the centre of the shot behind a microphone, singing and playing a guitar. It starts as a close up and zooms out to a long shot.

Second is of the boy sat on a chair, looking at a photo in his hand. It starts as a mid-shot and then zooms in to the photo.

Next we see the photo turn black and white and we see the image move and we see a scene of the couple in a forest. (central park? regents park?) It is black and white to show a memory of the past. They are playing in the leaves.

Next we cut back to the drama room and the boy gets off his chair and walks towards the camera. It is now back in colour and he is lip syncing to the song and playing the guitar. He gets close enough to the amera that we only see his eye, whoch takes up the entire shot.

There is a cut and we zoom out from his eye to show him sitting on a bench at a train station (in black and white). He turns to his left and it zooms out to a mid-shot to show the girl sat next to him. Lip synching? They smile and look happy and in love.

A train passes and halfway through there is a cut to another train passing, in colour (present time), linking the two to make it look like one train. It passes and we see the guy sat on the same bench in the same position, but on his own. He looks round as if he expected her to be there but know she is gone. Does more lip syncing and then places head in hands.

There is a transition to a market place in black and white. It is full of people, busy, walking around. (romford market?) It is a long shot with the boy stood with his back to the camera. We can see in the distance the girl walking up to him through the market. She will be walking very slowly so when we edit, we will speed it up and it will appear that she is walking normal pace, while everone arround her and the boy will be moving really fast. This represents that for them this sad moment is very slow and the world is passing them by as all they can focus on is them.

We have cuts to arguments, crying, rejections all in black and white. Slow motion? Shows their relationship failing.

Then back to the market with a mid-shot on the side of them facing each other. The boy is lip syncing while the girl shakes her head and walks past him.

Finally, we cut back to the drama room, in colour (present time), lip syncing and rips the picture in half, dropping the pieces to the floor. Fade to black as he turns and walks away.

Animatic

This is our animatic :)

It features our new song (but it sounds a little bit echo-y)

London (L)

Today we went down to London to do our filming. We got up bright and early so we would have the whole day. After a bit of confusion with what trains to get, we where on our way, and 3 trains later we had arrived in Regent's Park. It was a nice sunny day, perfect for filming, but it was still very cold and poor Becky had to wear a dress. It was such a unique setting and we got some great footage, first with Becky sat on the egde of a fountain and throwing in a penny, then we found an empty fountin so we had Becky walking around inside it and throwing the umbrella. We then shot her picking the petals off of a flower and then walking up a hill into a forest type area. Here we found a low tree, so i climbed up and filmed Becky from above, after she nearly fell out, we got some good shots and that was all for Regent's Park. Becky quickly made a costume change, while being shielded with my coat from some passers by, and we then made our way back to the station and back to Oxford Street. Here, after a bit of lunch sat on the floor of McDonalds because it was sooooooo BUSY, we found an quiet street and filmed Becky walking very slowly towards the camera, with the busy shoppers rushing behind her. We ended up by rewarding ourselves by doing some shopping and then made our way home.

We had a great day, with lots of laughs and came out with some great filming.

Good News :)

Well we have some good news.....we now have permission to use our new song. Becky got an email back from Ainjel and here is the email she sent her and what Ainjel replyed back:


Hello, i am a student at robert clack school studying media studies. For our second year a level coursework we have to produce a music video with a song that isnt copyrighted. We have had to change our song last minute and we really like your song Set Up for A Fall, so would it be possible that me and my group use your song. The only people that will see the finished video will be our teacher and the exam board, and we could send you the finished video to show you. Hope you get back to us.
Becky Kavanagh

>>>>

Hi becky! thanks for writing in. my song is also copyrighted, but i own the copyright 100% so as long as i get to see it, you may use it! good luck!


This means we can now start filming, and we have decided to go down to London tomorrow. We will be filming Becky, and she will be lip syncing to Ainjel's song when we film in the later weeks in the drama room at our school.

More Problems!

Yes we are still in trouble, Llyod cannot do filming as he is too busy, so we are back to square one. We are now taking a different route and me, Becky and Charlotte have been looking for new songs, but this time with a female vocalist. We have got a favourite called Set Up For a Fall by a girl called Ainjel Emme, and we have contacted her, along with some others incase we get no reply from her. This new song would be perfect as we would not need to change much of our storyline as it is also about a relationship going through a rough patch, so fingers crossed we will get permission to use the song.

Badtimes

Today we were supposed to be doing filming after school, but we have a problem. Jamie does not want to be in our video anymore, so we needed to either find someone else or find a new song by a girl singer so one of us can do it. Luckly charlotte has got a work friend called Lloyd to do it and we can start filming thursday mornings.

Storyline

Here is a rough storyline of what we will be filming:

boy band playing the song on stage, empty room with black curtain behind them. Storyline about main singer and his girlfriend. zoom in to him while singing and then his walking from the band to a chair sits down, gets his wallet out to look at a picture of him and his girlfriend, zoom into the picture. Changes from colour to black and white transitions to the past, clips of him and her playing about running and hugging in the field, throwing leaves and holding hand through the forest. Then changes to colour which is present zooms back out from the photo, to now what is happening. They are having problems, this part is set in london, shows them arguing, her crying him upset. Then she walks away from him, relationship is ending. Throughout the song there are different transitions, constantly going between past and present, including he walks up to the camera pushes it down then up, a good transition between the two. When the song is ending she walks away in colour and we then show a close up to his face and the camera follows him as he turns to look back at her, but now she is in black and white in the distance, to represent the relationship is over, between them.

We have our guy

Today we have confirmed that Jamie will be playing our boy. We will still need to find our other band members, but this can wait until a later date. We will therefore be filming next tuesday after school in a forest, and on Saturday 28th down in London.

More Planning

Props

Drama room- stage, microphone and microphone stand, guitars, black curtain behind the stage
Forest-trees, leaves, path
London-lights, shop windows, lots of people around

Lighting

Drama room-lights flickering on and off behind the band, coloured lights lights from below, create shadows
Forest: no lights, natural effect, shadows of the area
London: lights from lamp posts and the shop windows, bright colours from christmas lights


How will the video increase sales of the song?

The video will reflect the mood and lyrics of the song, so when people see it, if they have had the same experience they will feel they can relate to the song and will go and buy it, as people want to listen to songs they can relate to.

By the video reflecting the song lyrics, listeners will find it easy to pick up the lyrics themselves. Therefore if they are able to sing along to the song when they here it, they will find it more catchy and will be more likely to go and buy the song, or even download it.

Make-up Design

Girl:

-thin eyebrows

-thick foundation

-pink cheeks

-thick mascara

-false eyelashes

-pink lipgloss

-very girly

Here are some more of Beckys great drawings:

Hair design

Hair Style:

boy-indie/punk

girl-Boho style, maybe curls

Here are some drawings done by Becky for the hair style:

Costume

Here are our costume ideas:

Boy-skinny jeans with a checkered shirt and maybe a jumper/cardigan, converse and hat

Girl-flowery dress and waistcoat, sandles, big jewellery, flower in her hair

Rough Storyline Ideas

Overall storyline:
-A boy band with a singer and two guitar players
-the singer and his girlfriend are going through a bad time in their relationship
-he is remembering the good times in the past by looking at photos of them together and happy

Locations:
-inside=drama room, band playing
-outside=London (colourful-where they have their argument) and forest (black and white-memories of the good times)

Effects:
-verses are slow paced
-chorus, editing is faster
-transition: character pushes camera down, there is a cut and it is pulled back up in a different location
-character walks very slowly, when it is sped up when editing, character is walking normal pace and everyone around him his in fast-forward
-using a prob of a very bright and distinct colour, e.g. bright red flower, when colour is turned down to black and white for the shots of the past, the flower appears to be pink, while everything else is in black and white

Characters:
boy singer: Jamie Boddington, Nathaniel Whitfield
guitar players: whoever is not being the singer out of Jamie and Nathaniel and Luke Taylor
girl: me or Becky Hall

Planning

Today i had a hospital appointment so i was not in my media lesson. But becky and charlotte cracked on and came up with some good ideas.

Detailed Plan

Here is the main information needed beforewe can start filming:

Preparation

Name of track: Insominacs
Artist: Damon Gyett
Names of students in the group: Charlotte Pritchard, Becky Kavanagh and Becky Haxell


Initial research and target audience

-Our target audience will be young adults and teenagers as they are the ones who would listen to this type of music.
-Research into different styles of music videos


Outline ideas

-boy band indie style, they are shown preforming in different parts of the video
-storyline is about a relationship between the main singer in the band and he's girlfriend
-throughout the video we look back at past events by using pictures that transport us back to that time, when their relationship was strong


Conventions of the genre

Convention means the way things are done within the video. This also describes the genre of the music video.

The conventions of a music video vary depending on the genre of music. However some general conventions are:

- the artist is shown performing, the lyrics of the song influence what is shown in the video
-the pace of editing fits the pace of the music
-dress code reflects the mood of the song

Indie Guitar Band- Indie music videos are normally shot as a live performance, performing on a stage. The structure is purely performance based. They often have longist hair and are normally wearing jeans and a checkerd shirt etc.

Research into Artist

The information we can gather is what we have got from the newgrounds website. So far we know he is 18 and from Canada. We also know that he wrote the song for his girlfriend and is about her past relationships.

Potential Target Audience

At the moment there are many styles of music including pop, indie, rap, classical etc. The main styles teenagers listern to are pop and indie. So by producing a indie style song, the intrest will be coming from the teenagers. So our target audience is teenagers, and therefore we must make the video appealing to them. So hopefully our video will add value to the song.

How to increase sales and expand the audience

This can be achieved by using adverts, posters, flyers, concerts, bill boards, and websites with links.

What resources will you need?

For this video we will need:

-Boyband: one or two boys on guitars

-a girl character

-band equipment

-photos setting inside forest

Justification of ideas in relation to genre and artist

It is a indie style song, so the boy characters will be dressed in indie style clothes, so jeans and a shirt with converse. Their hair will be longist and nicely styled. We are using the idea of the artist, which is that the song was about his girlfriend. So we will be including a girl who is the total opposite of him, she is very girly etc. The video will show how perfect their relationship was, and now they falling apart.

Planning

Disscusion of Location Ideas

Today we had a meeting to start the planning of our music video. We disscused a range of locations that we think would best fit our song, and that we would like to try.

Here are our ideas:

Train Stations, maybe London Underground-we like the idea of having a busy surrounding, everyone rushing as they no where they need to go, and then having our character walking slowly towards the camera. Maybe have them walking very slowly, so we can speed up the shot and have everyone else in fast forward and our character walking at an apparent steady pace?

London Streets-we could also use the streets of London. We like the idea of the many different surroundings you can get in London, which would create different looks. We are also interested in filming at night, as even though it is night, it is still very bright with all the lights used in London, and this would look very effective in our video. Our group member Becky also came up with the idea of filming reflections in shop windows, which i think is a good idea, as nobody as done this before so it would make our video original.

Forest-this would create a playful scenery and could show the good times of a relationship. it would be best if we filmed on a bright sunny day to reflect the happy atmosphere, although if we cannot and it is grey and cold on our day of filming then we could show an argument between the couple and then the break up, reflected by the gloomy atmosphere.

Beach- we could use the same thing on a beach; a happy time if it is sunny, or an argument if it is cloudy. We could have the girl walking off and then a close up of her footprints in the sand.

If the locations we have chosen do not work out we could also try a restaurant or a graveyard.

Thelma and Louise

When looking at this film i thought about the idea of agency.


Brad Pitt's character is the object of erotic desire, however it is the female character that has the agency, she is active, powerful and makes the decisions. This is unusual, as it is normally the male character that has the agency. It proves the idea of agency as this film became very popular with women as it was seen to empower them.


Examples:


-"who do you want to be?", "want to lighten the load a bit?" he is constantly asking her questions, and allowing her to make the decisions, not telling her what to do.


-there is a phallocentric object, but is is comical, and a safe and sure object; hair-dryer, pretending it is a gun

Top Gun

Continuing with the idea of erotic desire, we looked at the film Top Gun.

In this film the object of erotic desire is the men, however it is for the male characters and audience:

-there is a women in the film, but we only see her once, and the male characters are not very interested in her


-Scene in the bar:

-camera cuts away from the girls quickly to a lingering shot of one of the male charcters (iceman) from Maverick's point of view

-he is the object of erotic desire

-there is a phallocentric object used: beer bottle

-they are positioned very close together

-show looks of desire: smiles, looking down at lips etc

-touch their beers bottles together while goose says, "we're gona have a good time".

-Playing with the boys: volleyball scene:

-the only players are men, and the only people watching are men

-they are all shirtless and oiled up: showing there muscles

-the shots are in slow motion

-the players keep touching each other: slaps, arm around shoulder

-Iceman pleads Maverick to stay: "one more game, please, for me"

-Maverick rides off on a phallocentric object: motorbike


This shows that the object of erotic desire in film can be any character, for any audience member.

The Idea of Erotic Desire

The idea of erotic desire applys mainly for women; they are seen as the object of erotic desire for the male characters and the male audience, even the female members of the audience, as they are forced to look through the male gaze.

However, some films turn this around and use the opposite character as the object of erotic desire: the male.

The effect this has just proves the idea of erotic desire in films.



An example:



James Bond



These films have never been very popular with the female audience, as when they watch them they are forced to look through the male gaze, which is not a very enjoyable experience, which is what watching a film is meant to be. The most famous scenes where this is used the most is when the female character is walking out of the sea:






However, in one of the most recent James Bond films, Casino Royale, they turn the tables, and use Daniel Craig as the object of erotic desire for the female characters and audience. They use the same scene, but by replacing the object of desire with a man it has a completely different effect.



This is evidence for the object of erotic desire idea, as women found the film more enjoyable as they were not being made to watch it as a man. And Casino Royale became the most popular James Bond film with women, ever. I wonder why?? :)

Audiences and Audience Theory Continued...

Feminist Film Theory and Audiences



-Laura Mulvey






-visual pleasure and narrative cinema (1975):

• cinema reflects society
• therefore cinema reflects a patriarchal society
• how does a patriarchal society manifest itself in cinema?

An example:

• patriarchy and phallocentrism are linked
• the phallus is the symbol of power
• note how guns are used in films
• guns=phallus=power

The Gaze


-the 'gaze' of the cinema is the male 'gaze'

-the male gaze is active, the female passive

- within the narrative, male characters direct their gaze towards female characters

-the spectator is made to identify with the male look, beacause the camera films from the obtical, as well as libidinal, point of view of the male character

-thus three levels of the cinematic gaze - cinema, character and spectator - that objectify the female character (the triple gaze)

-therefore the audience is constructed as though everyone was male

-women are forced to look as though they were a male audience member

Agency

-in the classical Hollywood cinema the male protagonist has agency - he is active and powerful



-he is the agent around whom the dramatic action unfolds



-the female character is passive and powerless - she is the object of desire for protagonist and audience






Erotic Desire



-Mulvey argues that women have two roles in film:

1. as an object of erotic desire for the characters
2. as an object of erotic desire for the audience